A MOTORIST who mowed down a lollipop lady and a group of schoolchildren was found guilty of careless driving yesterday – but fined just £100.

Robert Bell, 62, blamed a coughing fit for driving his Audi A3 into Karin Williams, who used her body like a shield to save the children.

A judge told him it was “a tragic case, more for those injured than yourself”.

Brave Karin, 50, stepped in front of Bell’s car with her lollipop sign to take the impact and tried to push five children out of the way.

She was left with broken legs, elbow, shoulder and ribs and spent 10 weeks in hospital.

Four girls and a boy were also injured along with two other adults.

One girl spent three days on a life support machine and still doesn’t have use of her left arm.

But Karin’s husband Lyndon said yesterday: “She won’t mind about the size of the fine as long as he was found guilty.

"It closes the case and now she can get on with her life.”

Bell was driving in flip-flops one morning last June when his car hit a bollard, flipped over and sent Karin and the children “cartwheeling through the air” outside the primary school in the village of Rhoose, near Cardiff.

It is something you will have to live with through a momentary lapse of concentration and misjudgment

Bodfan Jenkins, District Judge

Karin, a mother-of-one and a lollipop lady for 10 years, told how she heard a “revving noise” and saw Bell gripping the wheel with his eyes wide open seconds before the crash.

She said: “I saw a car coming towards me at speed.

“I was shouting something to warn the kids and moved in their direction out of instinct.

"The next thing I remember is being underneath the car.”

Retired computer consultant Bell was found guilty of driving without due care and attention by Cardiff magistrates.

District Judge Bodfan Jenkins told him: “You were having a coughing fit and you did not deal with it properly.

“You got your foot not where you intended on the brake but put it on the throttle.

"It was a misjudgment at low speed and a loss of control with horrendous consequences.

“This is a tragic case, more for those injured than yourself.

“It is something you will have to live with through a momentary lapse of concentration and misjudgment.”

Bell, of Fontygary, Vale of Glamorgan, was fined £100 with a £20 victim surcharge and costs of £1,130.

He had four points put on his licence.

The fine was based on his £110-a-week pension.

Civil proceedings are pending.

Bell’s lawyer David James said: “This has weighed heavily on his shoulders.”